


Couples, Trios, and One-Night Stands

by Canaan



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Character Study, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, Multi, Stand Alone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-17
Updated: 2011-06-17
Packaged: 2017-10-20 12:16:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/212690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canaan/pseuds/Canaan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack's present meets his past in the middle of the night, and he's not strong enough to turn it away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Couples, Trios, and One-Night Stands

**Author's Note:**

> A double-drabble by MS Word's reckoning, set right after Exit Wounds. Stand-alone, but might be considered a companion piece to "Sometimes." Completely un-beta'd, so it's all my fault.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own them, but this has been bugging me for weeks, so I wrote it down.

Jack knows he's given in to an illusion: an echo of something long-gone. It's not fair to Ianto and Gwen, but that didn't stop him. They're _his_ , if only this once. Even if bloody-minded Gwen, who still wears her heart on her sleeve, never crawls into their bed on another grief-stricken night when she can't bear to be alone. Even if practical, devious Ianto finds someone who can share a life with him the way Lisa would have and walks away. Even if they'll both end swiftly, as Torchwood agents do.

Jack wasn't noble enough to walk away.

He's old enough to see how the Doctor could feel himself weak in taking his companions to bed; how sometimes, he saw his lovers as children, and it made the inability to protect them even worse. But Jack's human: He can love the heartsick little remnant of his team and still be the parent. He can comfort them and accept their comfort as long as it leaves him this moment. He lies between them, sleepless--Ianto's lean, muscular frame pressed along one side of his body and Gwen's soft curves molded to the other--and feels safe and loved and not alone.


End file.
